Conventional desktop software applications operate on computer systems to allow for users, such as film or video editors, to edit digital video content. Example edits that can be made to the video include splicing video segments together, applying effects to video, adding subtitles, and the like. Further, conventional video editing software uses a horizontal timeline to graphically represent a video's length of time during video editing. The horizontal timeline is presented on a particular time scale (e.g. seconds, minutes, hours) and includes a video tracker that is synchronized with the video. As a portion of the video is played, the video tracker travels along the horizontal timeline in order to show that portion's precise time placement with respect to the horizontal timeline. The user can also manipulate the video tracker and place it at any point along the horizontal timeline. When doing so, the video begins playing at the point in the time represented by the placement of the video tracker. Thus, if the video tracker is placed 90 seconds into a horizontal timeline representing a two minute video, then the video will begin playing at the precise video frame that occurs at the 90th second of the two minute long video.
Video sharing websites, such as www.click.tv, provide user interface implementations based on such conventional horizontal timelines. On this site, a horizontal timeline is provided and the associated video is synchronized with comments. When the elapsed play time of the video matches the time of the text associated with the comment, the comment is shown in a separate box below the video. For example, if the video clip was a video recording of the latest speech by the President of the United States, comments could be added at certain points in the video clip of the President's speech. If the speech has a length of five minutes, a user may insert a comment at the 2:00 point, indicating that this part of the video clip of the President's speech talks about the economy. A second comment may be inserted at the 3:12 point indicating that this next part of the video clip of the President's speech deals with Congressional hearings.
A second user viewing the video clip of the President's speech would see the comments regarding the portions of the video clip when the video is played. When the video clip of the President's speech reached the 2:00 mark, the comment associated with that point would be shown. The comment regarding the economy would remain displayed until the video of the President's speech reached the 3:12 point at which time the comment regarding the economy would be replaced by the comment regarding the congressional hearings. Further, comments associated with the video clip could also be listed and the second user, by clicking on a particular comment, would be directed to that portion of the video clip.